Amass ALL the datas

Yo folks,

My PT didn’t go very well but I still feel like I was one of the most prepared players for the limited portion. I had done around 7 drafts before getting to the playtest apartment in Barcelona.  Then we did around 2-3 each day prior the tournament, most of which I was birding and commenting on everyone’s pick since I knew what I was doing and obviously wanted my team to do well.

Here are my top 3 favorite archetypes now that I have a bunch of drafts in.

RW Humans:

This is easily the fastest and most powerful archetype that Avacyn Restored has to offer. Unfortunately, since almost all the necessary cards are also good in any other red archetype, it makes it quite hard to draft.  The most important commons/uncommons in order would be:

1. Goldnight Commander
2. Lightning Mauler
3. Kruin Striker
4. Hanweir Lancer
5. Fervent Cathar
6. Riot Ringleader
7. Thatcher Revolt
8. Stonewright
9. Nearheath Pilgrim
10. Pillar of Flame

Honorable mentions: Mad Prophet, Kessig Malcontents, Moorland Inquisitor, Seraph of Dawn, Zealous Strike, Angel’s Tomb, Righteous Blow.

Card that isn’t attractive but 99% of the time makes the 40: Somberwald Vigilante

You’ve probably noticed that I value removal way lower than almost anything here. Well, the way this archetype works is by having an incredible synergy between your creatures pumping each other as well as being super-fast.

Traps:

Vigilante Justice
Even though it seems powerful and synergic with the deck … It is not. I’ve played with it a lot in RW and the problem is that a 4 drop that does nothing the turn you play it in such an aggressive deck isn’t exactly what you want. Often, you’ll end up keeping it in your hand because you have far better plays to follow your curve and then in the late game when you’ll have time to cast it, well, you won’t have any Humans left to play. If you decide to play it on turn 4 instead of following your normal curve, you just won’t accomplish what your deck is designed to do-attacking as fast as possible so your opponent doesn’t trump you with bigger creatures. Does Vigilante Justice help kill big creatures? No. I would only consider playing it if you are very light on playables or you have 3-4 Thatcher Revolt.

Thunderous Wrath
It may seem like a good card, it is probably a good card, but not exactly what you want in your starting hand. It will decrease your number of good aggressive starting hands. In the first 3-4 turns, it is also not very helpful to draw since you’ve probably already planned on curving from 2 to 4. Thunderous Wrath will tempt you to miracle it but in the end you’ll realize that it’s going to disturb your curve instead. I would pick that card only if it’s a free pick and end up playing it as a 20-24th card.

Thraben Valiant
Alright, 2/1 for 2 with Vigilance … Vigilance on a 2/1 isn’t very synergistic. You’ll probably attack into a 1/1 at first then never block, attack into their 2 or 3 drop then never block or attack their face … Oh, you’re attacking their face? That has to mean they have no blockers. Then you don’t have to block.
Even if they had creatures, you just don’t want to block with that archetype. Remember to only pick this card as a 2/1 Human Goblin Piker.

UW Skies

This archetype is in every format, it’s pretty redundant and easy to draft. Flying creatures, ground blockers and removal. Avacyn Restored gives it a slightly different touch with Favorable Winds than what we we’re used to in past draft formats. Here’s a breakdown of the top commons/uncommons:

1. Seraph of Dawn
2. Mist Raven
3. Fettergeist
4. Gryff Vanguard
5. Emancipation Angel
6. Favorable Winds
7. Into the Void
8. Defang
9. Righteous Blow
10. Wingcrafter

Honorable mentions: Scrapskin Drake, Tandem Lookout, Banishing Stroke, Crippling Chill, Peel from Reality, Goldnight Redeemer, Archangel, Voice of the Provinces, Angel’s Tomb, Elgaud Shieldmate. Moonlight Geist.

Cards that aren’t attractive but 99% of the time makes the 40: Scroll of Avacyn, Cathedral Sanctifier, and Angelic Wall

What I like about drafting UW is the amount of awkward cards that you actually want in your deck for certain purposes, such as Cathedral Sanctifier, Angelic Wall and Crippling Chill. Those all buy time and stall the ground while you fly over them.  They also enable your game plan to be able to cast cards like Archangel, Voice of the Provinces and Goldnight Redeemer since you will go into the late game easily.

Defang is at its finest in this deck, it not even close to be in another’s archetype Top10s, but in this one, everything attacks in the air.

Trap:

Latch Seeker
While it does have evasion, the fact that it is double blue makes it quite hard to constantly cast on turn 3 with this archetype that is mostly white based; your manabases should always look like 10 plains/7 island or 9 plains/8 island.

UB Control

This is by far my favorite deck to draft. The format is very midrange-y, which allows us to play very flexible strategies. There is two ways of drafting UB Control. Sometimes you get two Demonic Taskmaster and some Homicidal Seclusion so you end drafting lots of spells and creatures that you don’t care about sacrificing to the Taskmaster. This won’t happen often anymore since everyone knows that Homicidal Seclusion is nuts in almost any deck. Here’s the alternative. A bunch of cards that buy you time; removal and finishers. Since you can jam almost anything in this deck I’ve done a top 5 for each category instead:

Early blockers/stall

1. Butcher Ghoul
2. Alchemist’s Apprentice
3. Haunted Guardian
4. Crippling Chill
5. Crypt Creeper

Removal

1. Barter in Blood
2. Death Wind
3. Undead Executioner
4. Human Frailty
5. Ghoulflesh

Card advantage

1. Amass the Components
2. Evernight Shade
3. Gryff Vanguard
4. Driver of the Dead
5. Grave Exchange

High ends

1. Some Rare/Mythic
2. Some Rare/Mythic
3. Demonic Taskmaster
4. Maalfeld Twins
5. Marrow Bats

Overall very good cards:

1. Fettergeist
2. Homicidal Seclusion
3. Mist Raven
4. Into the Void
5. Tandem Lookout

Honorable mentions: Renegade Demon, Bone Splinters, Corpse Traders, Stern Mentor, Latch Seeker, Blood Artist, Searchlight Geist, Geist Snatch, Scrapskin Drake.

Traps:

Spectral Prison
That card just doesn’t do much. It requires your opponent’s creature to be to tapped, which means you’ve already taken damage from it. Sometimes you will set your turn so that you’re tapped out, only have one blocker for theirs and then end of turn they’ll randomly target their guy so it untaps and kills you. I would only play Spectral Prison if I was VERY light on removal and desperate.

Vanishment
People give way too much credit to that card. 90% of the time you don’t even want to miracle it. You want to set up an instant speed trick with it instead. It would be fine to miracle in a tempo deck, but in UB Control it is basically just a Griptide for 5 mana.

There are a handful of other possibilities of archetypes to draft in Avacyn Restored but these we’re my favorites.

If you have any question about why I ranked a card higher than another, feel free to comment and I will answer as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading and hope my English writing gets better and better!